Beyond direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) modelling of collision environments

ABSTRACT

Direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) models have been successfully adopted and adapted to describe gas flows in a wide range of environments since the method was first introduced by Bird in the 1960s. We propose a new approach to modelling collisions between gas-phase particles in this work – operating in a similar way to the DSMC model, but with one key difference. Particles move in a mean field, generated by all previously propagated particles, which removes the requirement that all particles be propagated simultaneously. This yields a significant reduction in computation effort and lends itself to applications for which DSMC becomes intractable, such as when a species of interest is only a minor component of a large gas mixture.     

Dynamic leg-motion and its effect on the aerodynamic performance of cyclists

In this wind-tunnel based experimental study, the flow topology of the near wake of a generic anatomically accurate model cyclist is mapped for a range of reduced pedalling frequencies. Wake flow fields for both static leg and pedalling cyclists are compared over the full 360° rotation of the crank using both time- and phase-averaging. The primary wake flow structures and aerodynamic forces are quantified and analysed under dynamic pedalling conditions representative of an elite-level time-trial cyclist. Over the range of reduced pedalling frequencies studied, only minor variation was detected between the instantaneous drag and primary vortical structures of a pedalling cyclist compared to a stationary cyclist with the pedals in the same position. A simplified model of the aerodynamic forces acting on the legs under motion is presented to provide insight into how the motion of the legs influences aerodynamic drag. A comparison of predicted forces from this model with those from experiments provides a new perspective on how the aerodynamics of cyclists may be optimised.     

Evaluation of RBFs for volume data interpolation in CFD

A greedy method for choosing an optimum reduced set of control points is integrated with RBF interpolation and evaluated for the purpose of interpolating large‐volume data sets in CFD. Given a function defined at a set of points, the greedy method selects a small subset of these points that is sufficient to keep the interpolation error at all the remaining points below a chosen bound. This is equivalent to a type of data compression and would have useful storage, post‐processing, and computational applications in CFD. To test the method in terms of both the point selection scheme and the suitability of reduced control point volume interpolation, a trial application of the interpolation to velocity fields in CFD volume meshes is considered. To optimise the point selection process, and attempt to be able to capture multiple length scales, a variable support radius formulation has also been included. Structured and unstructured mesh cases are considered for aerofoils, a wing case and a wing‐body case. For smooth volume functions, the method is shown to work well, producing accurate velocity interpolations using a very small number of the cells in the mesh. For general complex fields including large gradients, the method is still shown to be effective, although large gradients require more interpolation points to be used.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strong solutions to 3D compressible magnetohydrodynamic equations with Navier‐slip condition

We consider the short time strong solutions to the compressible magnetohydrodynamic equations with initial vacuum, in which the velocity field satisfies the Navier‐slip condition. The Navier‐slip condition differs in many aspects from no‐slip conditions, and it has attracted considerable attention in nanoscale and microscale flows research. Inspired by Kato and Lax's idea, we use the Lax–Milgram theorem and contraction mapping argument to prove local existence. Moreover, under the Navier‐slip condition, we establish a criterion for possible breakdown of such solutions at finite time in terms of the temporal integral of L^∞ norm of the deformation tensor D(u). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

GPU‐accelerated direct numerical simulations of decaying compressible turbulence employing a GKM‐based solver

Gas Kinetic Method‐based flow solvers have become popular in recent years owing to their robustness in simulating high Mach number compressible flows. We evaluate the performance of the newly developed analytical gas kinetic method (AGKM) by Xuan et al. in performing direct numerical simulation of canonical compressible turbulent flow on graphical processing unit (GPU)s. We find that for a range of turbulent Mach numbers, AGKM results shows excellent agreement with high order accurate results obtained with traditional Navier–Stokes solvers in terms of key turbulence statistics. Further, AGKM is found to be more efficient as compared with the traditional gas kinetic method for GPU implementation. We present a brief overview of the optimizations performed on NVIDIA K20 GPU and show that GPU optimizations boost the speedup up‐to 40x as compared with single core CPU computations. Hence, AGKM can be used as an efficient method for performing fast and accurate direct numerical simulations of compressible turbulent flows on simple GPU‐based workstations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global persistence of geometrical structures for the Boussinesq equation with no diffusion

Our main aim is to investigate the temperature patch problem for the two-dimensional incompressible Boussinesq system with partial viscosity: the initial temperature is the characteristic function of some simply connected domain with 𝒞^1,𝜀 Hölder regularity. Although recent results ensure that the 𝒞¹ regularity of the patch persists for all time, whether higher order regularity is preserved has remained an open question. In the present paper, we give a positive answer to that issue. We also study the higher dimensional case, after prescribing an additional smallness condition involving critical Lebesgue or weak-Lebesgue norms of the data, so as to get a global-in-time statement. All our results stem from general properties of persistence of geometrical structures (of independent interest), that we establish in the first part of the paper.     

A sharp‐interface immersed boundary framework for simulations of high‐speed inviscid compressible flows

A new finite‐volume flow solver based on the hybrid Cartesian immersed boundary (IB) framework is developed for the solution of high‐speed inviscid compressible flows. The IB method adopts a sharp‐interface approach, wherein the boundary conditions are enforced on the body geometry itself. A key component of the present solver is a novel reconstruction approach, in conjunction with inverse distance weighting, to compute the solutions in the vicinity of the solid‐fluid interface. We show that proposed reconstruction leads to second‐order spatial accuracy while also ensuring that the discrete conservation errors diminish linearly with grid refinement. Investigations of supersonic and hypersonic inviscid flows over different geometries are carried out for an extensive validation of the proposed flow solver. Studies on cylinder lift‐off and shape optimisation in supersonic flows further demonstrate the efficacy of the flow solver for computations with moving and shape‐changing geometries. These studies conclusively highlight the capability of the proposed IB methodology as a promising alternative for robust and accurate computations of compressible fluid flows on nonconformal Cartesian meshes.     

On power-law fluids with the power-law index proportional to the pressure

In this short note we study special unsteady flows of a fluid whose viscosity depends on both the pressure and the shear rate. Here we consider an interesting dependence of the viscosity on the pressure and the shear rate; a power-law of the shear rate wherein the exponent depends on the pressure. The problem is important from the perspective of fluid dynamics in that we obtain solutions to a technologically relevant problem, and also from the point of view of mathematics as the analysis of the problem rests on the theory of spaces with variable exponents. We use the theory to prove the existence of solutions to generalizations of Stokes’ first and second problem.     

An accurate pressure–velocity decoupling technique for semi‐implicit rotational projection methods

In this paper, an accurate semi‐implicit rotational projection method is introduced to solve the Navier–Stokes equations for incompressible flow simulations. The accuracy of the fractional step procedure is investigated for the standard finite‐difference method, and the discrete forms are presented with arbitrary orders or accuracy. In contrast to the previous semi‐implicit projection methods, herein, an alternative way is proposed to decouple pressure from the momentum equation by employing the principle form of the pressure Poisson equation. This equation is based on the divergence of the convective terms and incorporates the actual pressure in the simulations. As a result, the accuracy of the method is not affected by the common choice of the pseudo‐pressure in the previous methods. Also, the velocity correction step is redefined, and boundary conditions are introduced accordingly. Several numerical tests are conducted to assess the robustness of the method for second and fourth orders of accuracy. The results are compared with the solutions obtained from a typical high‐resolution fully explicit method and available benchmark reports. Herein, the numerical tests are consisting of simulations for the Taylor–Green vortex, lid‐driven square cavity, and vortex–wall interaction. It is shown that the present method can preserve the order of accuracy for both velocity and pressure fields in second‐order and high‐order simulations. Furthermore, a very good agreement is observed between the results of the present method and benchmark simulations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.